United States House of Representatives elections, 1962

1960 ←

November 6, 1962

→ 1964

All 435 seats to the United States House of Representatives 218 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	John McCormack	Charles Halleck
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Massachusetts-12th	Indiana-2nd
Last election	262 seats	175 seats
Seats won	258	176
Seat change	4	1
Popular vote	26,860,184	24,160,387
Percentage	52.4%	47.1%
Swing	2.4%	2.3%

Speaker before election

John McCormack
Democratic

Elected Speaker

John McCormack
Democratic

The 1962 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1962, which occurred in the middle of President John F. Kennedy's term. As in most midterm elections, Kennedy's Democratic Party lost seats to the opposition Republican Party, but retained a majority. House Democrats were expected to lose their majority, but the resolution over the Cuban Missile Crisis just a few weeks prior, led to a rebound in approval for the Democrats under President Kennedy.

The number of seats up for election went back to 435, in accordance with reapportionment resulting from the 1960 census. (The membership had been increased temporarily to 437 in 1959, providing 1 seat each for new states of Alaska and Hawaii, while the other 435 seats continued with the reapportionment resulting from the 1950 census.)

A notable freshman was future Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (R-Illinois).

Summary of the November 6, 1962 election results

Alabama lost 1 seat in redistricting and elected all seats at-large as a method of determining which seat to eliminate.

Arizona gained one seat and formed a new third district out of the northern part of the state.

Arkansas lost two seats and merged the 5th and 6th districts into the other districts. 5th district incumbent Dale Alford chose to run for governor rather than face Wilbur Mills in a primary, and 6th district incumbent Catherine Dorris Norrell retired after serving out the remainder of her husband’s term.

Eight new seats were added in reapportionment, including 4 additional districts in Greater Los Angeles alone as well as others in San Diego, the Northern Central Valley, Alameda County, and the Central Coast, increasing the delegation from 30 to 38 seats. Seven of the new seats were won by Democrats, one by a Republican. Two Republican incumbents lost re-election to Democrats. Therefore, Democrats increased by 9 seats and Republicans decreased by 1.

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